Orientating mechanism



July 30 1957 P. BAsKnN 2,800,993

ORIENTATING MECHNISM Filed Jan. 27, 1955 FIG2.

y I//J//l/l/l//l////////////////////// Il 'll/1 INVENTOR PAUL BASKINWwf/#7,

ATTORNEY United States Patent O ORIENTATING MECHANISM Paul Baskin,Shawnee, Okla., assignor to Sylvania Electric Products Inc., acorporation of Massachusetts Application January 27, 1955, Serial No.484,414

6 Claims. (Cl. 198-33) This invention relates to assorters. Particularlyit relates to means for assorting elongated articles which are larger indiameter at one end than another in order to divide the articles intotwo groups each of which will have the larger ends oriented the sameway.

To effect this result advantage has been taken of the fact that when anarticle, such as a frustum of a cone, revolves on a surface, the largerend will travel a greater distance than the smaller end and if thearticle be carried up an incline, the article will rst roll down theincline and then, at the lower level will align itself with the lowportion of the surface, but displaced laterally of its original positionand toward the smaller end of the conical member.

A clearer understanding of the invention will be had by referring to thefollowing specification, taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawing in which Fig. l is a view, partly diagrammatic and partly insection, of an apparatus embodying my invention.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic View illustrating the principle of operation ofthe assorter.

Fig. 3 is a View of an assorter showing how a multiplicity of sortingdrums may be conveniently related to one another.

Fig. 4 is a detail showing how articles are distributed to dierent ductsleading to different drums, and

Fig. 5 is a view of the bottom plate of the distributor.

Referring to the figures in greater detail, at there is disclosed ahopper receiving elongated articles which, toward one end, have a largercircumference than toward the other. These articles may be screws,bolts, headed pins, cones, or, as in the illustration, cathode sleevessuch as are commonly employed in the electron tube industry.

These sleeves 12 usually have a bead 14 near one end to engage aninsulating member, such as a mica disc, to prevent the cathode sleevemoving in one direction with respect to the disc. It is desirable tostorage these sleeves in containers with all the beaded ends in onedirection.

The hopper 10 has these sleeves fed thereto, seriatim, as through agating mechanism, and the sleeves may be presented to the hopper eitherend foremost. The sleeves are then fed via a exible hose 16, one at atime, to a rotating plug 18 held in a shell 20 the upper end of which islianged as shown at 22 and the other end of which is closed by aperforated plate 24. The plug 18 has an accentric bore 26 therethrough.The hose is connected to the plug in alignment with the bore and thebore cornmunicates with a number of elongated circumferentially arrangedholes 28 in the plate through which holes the cathode sleeves will dropin sequence. To rotate the plug 18, the periphery thereof is providedwith gear teeth 30 meshing with a spur `drive gear 32 which extendsthrough an opening in the shell 20 for engagement with the teeth 30.

Each of the openings 28 is provided with a duct 33 leading into ahorizontal rotating drum 34, open at both 2,800,993 Patented July 30,1957 rice ends. The end of each duct is about midway of its respectivedrum and well above the central axis thereof. The cathode sleeves thusdrop out of the conduits near the centers of the drums.

Now consider Fig. 2. This ligure may be considered as a horizontalsection of the drum with the drum rotating clockwise when viewed fromthe left hand end. There is illustrated in this drum two sleeves, oneeach near the open ends of the drums. The right hand sleeve 12A when itdropped into the drum had its beaded end to the left; the other, 12B, tothe right. On rotation of the drum, the sleeve 12B initially was carriedup the wall of the drum and then rolled downward on the inner surface ofthe drum with the wider beaded end travelling along the drum Wallfarther than the narrower unbeaded end. Then near the bottom of thedrum, the sleeve slipped bodily thereby effecting a displacement of thesleeve 12B to the left. Similarly, the sleeve 12A will have moved to theright. The movement of the sleeves thus continues until finally theyfall into inclined chutes 36 leading to inclined receptacles 38, hereillustrated as cylindrical glass containers, with open tops and closedbottoms. The drum and containers are suitably driven, as by the rollerand belt arrangement 40, diagrammatically illustrated in Figs. l and 3.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is:

1. Means for assorting elongated articles having one portion along thelength of greater cross section than another, said means comprising ahorizontal drum with an open end rotatable about its horizontal axis,means for feeding in articles to the drum at a point within the drumremoved fros aid end and means for rotating the drum about said axiswhereby those articles which are directed toward said open end with thegreater cross section toward the trailing end are caused to move towardthe open end.

2. Means for assorting elongated articles having one portion along itslength of greater cross section than another, said means comprising ahorizontal drum with open ends rotatable about its horizontal axis,means for feeding in articles to the drum between the ends of the drumand means for rotating the drum about its axis whereby the articles movetowards the ends of the drum, each with the portion of greater crosssection trailing away from the end toward which it is moving.

3. Means for assorting elongated articles having one portion along itslength of greater cross section than another, said means comprising ahorizontal drum open at both ends, means for feeding in articles to thedrum near the longitudinal center thereof, means for rotating the drum,cylindrical receptacles on inclined axes adjacent the open ends of thedrum to receive articles discharged from the drum and means for rotatingthe receptacles on their inclined axes.

4. Means for assorting elongated articles having one portion of largercross sectional dimension than another, said means comprising adistributor, a number of drums rotatable on a horizontal axis, each openat both ends, conduit means connecting the distributor to said drums,said conduit means terminating within said drums substantially midwayalong the lengths thereof, means for rotating the drums to effectmovement of the articles toward the open ends of the drums, saidarticles being separated by rotation of said drums and fed towardrespective ends of the drums in accordance with the directions of thelarger cross sectional area of the articles with respect to the smallerarea, and means for receiving the assorted articles leaving the openends of the drums.

5. The method of assorting elongated articles in accordance with theirorientation and which articles have one portion along their lengths ofgreater cross ysectional Y area than another portion, said methodconsisting in rolling a number ofY such articles, haphazardly arranged,downwardly Von` a surfacewhich extends awayfromthe. horizontalso thatthe larger cross sectional portions of the articles rollrand travelfarther down `the surface than the smaller portions and then the`Vsrnaller1portions,slip into alignment with the larger'portions,thencarrying the articles bodily up the surface to new positions, thenagain rolling the articlesfdown the surface, and repeating the rollingand carrying steps until complete separation of the articles intotworgroups has been effected.

Y 6. Thermethod ofassortingV elongated articles in accordance with theirorientation andfrwhich articles Vhave one portion along their lengths ofgreater cross sectional area lthanranother portion, said methodconsisting in depositing haphazardly arranged articles of the characterdescribed in the center of horizontal drum and rotating said drumcontinuously in one direction and separately collecting the articlesappearing at each end of the drum.

References Cited the le of this patent UNITED STATES :PATENTSv 794,890Rogers .Tuly 18, 1905 1,300,441 Marsa n Apr. 15, '1919 1,394,908 Kellingv Oct. 25, 1921 2,030,645 Lockridge Feb. 11, 1936 2,361,111 Light Oct.24, 1944 FOREIGN PATENTS' 511,885 Belgium June 30, 1952

